THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG EXTENDED EDITION Release Details

For all those fans of Middle-earth, this is the edition you have been waiting for. Sure we got the first release to satisfy our Hobbit cravings. Now it time to see the whole film. Warner Brothers has released the date for the extended version of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!

Press Release:The Quest through Middle-earth continues in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, from Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson, when the epic fantasy adventure is released as an Extended Edition on Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray on November 4th from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE). A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, this extended cut of the second film in The Hobbit Trilogy includes 25 minutes of extra film footage that extends individual scenes, making this the must-see, definitive version for fans. Both versions of the Extended Edition include more than nine hours of new bonus features that will enrich the experience of the Trilogy as fans gear up for the December 17 theatrical release of the third and final film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugExtended Edition will be available as a 5-disc Blu-ray 3D set ($54.98 SRP) that features the Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray versions of the Extended Edition; and a 3-disc Blu-ray ($35.99). Both the Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray include a digital version of the movie on Digital HD with UltraViolet.

The nine-plus hours of new special features boasts audio commentary with Peter Jackson, the film's director/producer/screenwriter, and Philippa Boyens, co-producer/screenwriter, as well as “The Appendices,” a multi-part documentary focusing on various aspects of the film and the Trilogy. Complete special feature details are provided below.

Synopsis:The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on an epic quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.

Having survived the beginning of their unexpected journey, the Company travels East, encountering along the way skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood. After escaping capture by the dangerous Wood-elves, the Dwarves journey to Lake-town, and finally to the Lonely Mountain itself, where they must face the greatest danger of all–a creature more terrifying than any other; one which will test not only the depth of their courage but the limits of their friendship and the wisdom of the journey itself–The Dragon Smaug.

· The Appendices –The Appendices Parts IX and X showcasean immersive multi-part history of the filming of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, covering pre-production in the various departments of the film in the months leading up to the start of principal photography, training, the work done on set and in the world of its digital effects.

· New Zealand: Home of Middle-earth – Part 2

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The theatrical versions are bloated with padding. How are they going to add an extra 25 minutes to the film?

The director's cut of the Lord of the Rings films included additional scenes of genuine worth. The trilogy of books was so long and packed with stuff that there were scenes of importance cut from the theatrical release to bring it down to just 3 hours. To see those scenes in an extended cut made the movies better.

But with the Hobbit movies one medium length novel was stretched into 3 long films by including EVERY scene in the book. Very minor characters got a lot of screen time. Characters from other books were added and got scenes. New characters were invented and scenes written for them. Scenes were created from material in the indexes to other books. This is rediculous!

I like Tolkien as well as anybody and Jackson does a superb job of bringing his books to life on the silver screen. But enough is enough. I do not need to see an extended version of The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug.

And it gave me the dredded forbidden 403 error for including the colon in the name of the movie. Fortunately I had anticipated this and coppied the text of my reply before trying to post. The same post without the colon went right through.

Mania, what's with this war on punctuation? Inclucing anything more exotic than an exclamation point means the post doesn't go through!

Yeah karas, I've commented about this many a time and I don't think they bother to fix it. You can't put quotation marks, or 3 periods in a row. I think it's part of preventing spam links being posted but whatever they use to block that is way too sensitive. I've gotten into the habit of copying my text before hitting ADD.

As far as the Hobbit on blu ray, I'll just wait for the collection of all 3 extended versions together. And you definitely make a good point about the LOTR extended editions. With them they added great stuff from the books that had been cut. It'll be interesting to see what they add here. As long as they aren't completely extraneous, I'm sure it will still be a great film.